Writings, pics, music, arts and difficult conversations

Fantasy Final

Football Isn’t War
But Can Stop One

What follows is a figure of imagination, a dream, not yet a vision but an exercise of what could’ve been in an alternate past, or will, in a very distant future. Since both South and North Korea are taking part in the World Cup in South Africa, the timing for imagining such as thing is as good as any.
Yes, the North was accused in March of having sank a South Korean war vessel, killing sailors and awakening terrifying nightmares of a often threaten but so far, thank goodness, unfulfilled conflict in the Korean Peninsula.
But the World Cup is a time to put it all aside and imagine a brotherhood of nations, united in their taste for running after a ball and scoring a redemptive goal. No place to engage in anachronistic and frighteningly lethal political disputes.
Sure, there’re always petty disagreements between the two separated-at-birth countries. The illegal leaking of TV coverage of the games from the South to the North is one such example. And the U.S.-based North Koreans’ utmost discretion supporting their home team is another. They’re surely out there but it’s good that we don’t know where, lest not a paid spy or a volunteer low life overhear us and tell on them, causing their undesired repatriation.
Finally, it’s by now obvious neither has any chance to progress in this cup. The North, which put up a brave face against powerful Brazil in their first game and still lost, just fell completely apart against Portugal.
The South, always a better team than the North, is nevertheless also a candidate to go packing early. That’s because, as the schedule stands now, it’ll need an unlikely amount of goals to equalize their group’s expected winners, Greece and Mexico. It’ll always have a victory over one of them, though, Greece, to carry back home.
A helpful note for fellow travelers: from this point on, we’ll be using a lot of ‘past wishful tense’ verbs. Please feel free to make the proper adjustments as you go.

So what if they’d faced each other at some point in this cup? It doesn’t matter at what stage; these two playing against each other would have had the same weight of a final, at least for them and their citizens, trapped in such a puzzling political charade.
First, let’s see if that would have been at all possible.South Korea, after Greece, would’ve had to have a great result against Argentina or Nigeria. Or have had a magical combination of scores, like Italy had in 1982. With three ties, it still won it all that year. So it would’ve been possible to Korea too.
With a lucky combinations of results, the South’d had gone on to face either winner or runner up of Group B. That’d have been Mexico or Uruguay, we know now. For the sake of argument, let’s say it would’ve beaten Uruguay in the second round.
Now, let’s leave it like that for a moment and see how North Korea could’ve fared, if it were really lucky. Remember, they beat the same Italy, already two-time champions, the last time they played the tournament, in 1966. So again, it wouldn’t have been impossible.
To advance in their group, the North would’ve had to beat at least two out of Brazil, Portugal and Ivory Coast. Or get that combination of ties, etc. Stay with me, this is fun. It would’ve had then faced the winner or runner up of Group H, Spain, Switzerland, Chile or Honduras. Let’s say they’ve beaten, for example, Chile, which, all hell broke loose, would’ve also scored their own miracle in this scenario.
Boom! They would’ve been in the Quarterfinals. Now, please don’t count the many leaps of faith it would’ve taken for us to get there just yet. The South would’ve beaten Argentina and the North, Spain. Everybody else would’ve been dead and South Korea would’ve met the North in the final.
You see, FIFA may’ve tried hard to keep these two separated by side and bracket, lest not to give either the chance to refuse to walk on the field and face the other. But we did it. And at that point, I’d very much doubt that the world over wouldn’t have helped the ball roll and approved a football match as a détente between these two long lost brothers.Just imagine. It would’ve been a national day of reckoning for both nations, no question about it. Instead of all those warships teasing each other in the Korean Peninsula, thousand of leisure boats would be greeting each other. Tearful family reunions would abound on the beaches surrounding the area. The two rulers smiling, posing for pictures and to history. A celebration that… well, let’s leave it like that for now.
But if all it took was a few minutes of infernal math and absurdly optimist assumptions; a few strokes of imagination and a gargantuan desire to make it all work in the end, how much harder can peace be? As a matter of fact, much, much harder. But not impossible.
A great coda for this fantasy is no figure of anyone’s imagination. It actually happened. In 1967, warring factions of Nigeria’s seemingly endless Biafra civil war signed a 48-hour cease-fire so the great Pelé could play an exhibition match in the capital Lagos. It was Pelé, yes, but it was also thousands of people who, for a change, wanted to just watch a football match. And they got it. Any takers for this one?

OCTOBER CUT

Tim Burton's Vincent (1982)

WILD HORSES

Harrowing Ride

Audio Portrait

East Village in the 80s through my answering machine. Greeting messages, friendly voices, a recorded ecstasy and many tongues were left on tape for me to remember. Now I'm sharing it all with you. Enjoy it.

World Cup
in S.Africa.
Remember?

Zombie Paul
Walks Again

New straight-to-DVD documentary rehashes an old conspiracy theory(with a little help from a "George Harrison package" postmarked after his death!).

Joyce's 'Ulysses'
as Graphic Novel

The illustration above is one of the plates of "Ulysses 'Seen,'" a high quality graphic adaptation by Robert Berry of James Joyce's masterpiece "Ulysses."
For those who never got around to read the long, uninterrupted, controversial June 16, 1904, conversation by Molly Bloom, Stephen Dedalus and others, that the great Irishman envisioned in Dublin, you won't have a better chance to do it.
And for those already familiar with the book form, it's another opportunity to appreciate this enduring work of literature through the eyes of a contemporary artist.
In either case, a few pints of Guinness to go along with it are absolutely optional.

EPITAPH

"Alone we are born, and die alone;
Yet see the red-gold cirrus
Over snow-mountain shine.
Upon the upland road
Ride easy, stranger:
Surrender to the sky
Your heart of anger."

FALSE ALARM

Desmodus

The Artist

Father & Son

Fireball Over Midwest Skies

COLL POLL

The Numbers Are In

Voting stations are closed at this time. The final tally was 13 votes in favor of Coll getting a cellphone and two against it.

MAY 19th IS COLL'S BIRTHDAY & HE WON!

This decision is final. Thank you all for participating. Coll's most heartfelt gratitude goes for the kind souls who voted in favor. For the two heartless hacks who were against it (you know who you are), a SWAP team graciously volunteered to pay you a visit first thing tomorrow morning. Stop by the front desk to request a waiver to present to your teacher, boss or dominatrix. Call your mother. Enroll in a charitable cause. Volunteer at a Soup Kitchen. Run to raise funds for Aids. This is our last broadcast. Please tune in for future promotions. This tape will self-destroy in five seconds. No further ado will come out of nothing. (5/19/2010)

MOTION

CLUTCH

Off-Key Note

Writings, pictures, videos, comments & more, edited by a writer, musician and world citizen living in downtown
New York City.
Acting gigs, a few screenplays and endless clashes with reality.
Brazilian by birth, multilingual by chance, cash strapped as usual.
Agnostic but partial to great soccer. Unmoved by sunsets, campaign speeches, the religious pull or any sure bet.Poor vision and lower back pain. A bottomless pit for a navel. Blue, cats, 9, left, heat and outer space.
Common ground needs not to apply. Not accepting advice at this time.

Naked City

“In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock.”

Slideshow

LAST WORDS

* - "Let's do it."GARY GILMORE, executed by firing squad in Jan. 17, 1977, by the State of Utah, for murdering a model clerk. He was the last person to be executed in the U.S. in that fashion until June 18, 2010, when Ronnie Lee Gardner was shot to death also by Utah.

Norman Mailer wrote "The Executioner's Song," which he called a "true story," based on the relationship he established with Gilmore, a confessed killer, and the state of affairs of the U.S. in the 1970s. The book doesn't shy away from the horrific facts surrounding his murderous spree, but in a way it tones them down and shifts the focus to the society's possible role as a fertile ground for such deviant behavior.